Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dialysis apparatus dialyses blood of a patient.
The present inventors have developed the dialysis apparatus shown in FIG. 1 as a dialysis apparatus used in blood dialysis.
As shown in FIG. 1, a blood pump 4 is connected to a first pipe 3 which is coupled with a blood inlet 2 of a patient. An arterial-side chamber 6 is connected to the blood pump 4 through the medium of a second pipe 5. A dialyzer 8 is connected to arterial chamber 6 through the medium of the third pipe 7. A venous-side chamber 10 is connected to dialyzer 8 through the medium of a fourth pipe 9. Venous-side chamber 10 is connected to blood outlet 12 through the medium of a fifth pipe 11. The first through fifth pipes 3 to 11 comprise the main piping.
Furthermore, a supplementary fluid reservoir (supplementary fluid supply mechanism) 14 is connected to the first pipe 3 through the medium of a branch pipe 13. A vein clamp 15 for opening and closing the pipe 11 is provided on the fifth pipe 11.
When dialysis of blood is conducted by means of this dialysis apparatus 1, blood pump 4 is engaged, and the blood from the body of a patient is caused to circulate within the piping of the dialysis apparatus 1 in the direction shown by arrow A in FIG. 1. When this is conducted, the blood is caused to pass through hollow capillary tubes (not depicted in the diagram) disposed within dialyzer 8, and waste products and the like which are present in the blood are removed.
That is to say, when the blood passes through the hollow capillary tubes within dialyzer 8, the waste products present in the blood are expelled into a dialysis fluid which circulates within the vessels of dialyzer 8, waste products are removed, and purified blood is returned to the body of the patient from blood outlet 12.
In this dialysis apparatus 1, after the above described blood dialysis has been completed, in order to return the blood within the piping to the body of the patient (this is termed "blood return"), the following operations are conducted.
(1) First, forceps are applied to branch pipe 13, and the flow of supplementary fluid is blocked.
(2) Next, the first pipe 3 is removed from the blood inlet 2 of the patient.
(3) Next, a separately prepared supplementary fluid reservoir is connected to this first pipe 3, and, setting the blood pump 4 to low revolutions, the blood within the piping is returned to the veins of the patient while supplying supplementary fluid from this supplementary fluid reservoir or while supplying air. At this time, observation is conducted so that gas bubbles do not enter the body of the patient, and blood pump 4 may be stopped rapidly.
However, with the above dialysis apparatus 1, the blood return operations themselves require a certain amount of training, and this operation requires a .considerable amount of labor and time.